Lost 5.06

[selenak]

The frustrating thing is that everything going on behind the scenes, which obviously we'll be filled in later, interested me more than what was going on with Jack - i.e. what happened with Hurley and Sayid to bring them on the plane, was the loose end Ben mentioned Penny, if so, what happened there, and did Kate hand over Aaron to Claire's mother (who is in town, after all, and Kate knows her hotel)? Being strictly limited to Jack's pov and watch him avoid Locke's letter for an episode instead was frustrating. In a legitimate set-up way - as I said, I'm certain we'll be filled in later - but still very frustrating. Though I'm disappointed Locke wrote just the one sentence, though if he had conveyed useful information I'd have been tempted even more to yell at Jack for not at least considering that possibility and open the damn letter right when he got it.

Bless Hurley. From the moment Eloise said that they'd have to take a plane I was wondering about the other passengers. Now we had already established in the s3 finale that Jack was so far gone he didn't care who else crashed with him, with all the flights he booked in the hope of crashing again, and of course Ben doesn't care, either, but the fact Sun or Kate made no attempt to warn anyone off is saying something chilling about them. Hurley buying the other seats to make sure no one else gets dragged to the island? *hugs Hurley with his intact humanity, big time*

Okay, at a guess: Sayid plus marshal being on the plane is due to Ben orchestrating this; he probably gave the police a tip. Hurley, on the other hand, probably had another visitation from Dead Charlie Walking (hence the guitar) and was told to return to the island because Claire is still there. Kate, as I said, reconsidered about Aaron, drove to Claire's mother and told her the truth. Ben I'm 90% sure followed Desmond because of Penny ("fulfill a promise I made to an old friend" was clearly Ben speak for his "you killed my daughter, I'll kill yours" conversation with Widmore) , and they'll probably tease us a while before revealing whether Penny is alive or dead; as mentioned in earlier reviews, due to Desmond's and Penny's status as the couple embodying hope on this show I'm completly certain of Penny's survival.

Something else they'll tease us a while with before revealing it: where Ben is. Because obviously, there is that big "I can't return to the island'" thing from the fourth season finale. I see two possibilities: Ben is wherever the rest of the plane is in the world around the island, crashed in the ocean or still flying, or Ben did make it on the island but not in the right time frame, and won't be in synch with the castaways, either.

That van Jin is driving looks relatively new, and his Dharma uniform doesn't look as if he stripped it off a mouldering corpse, either, so I'm thinking our heroes arrived briefly before the purge and will remain there for a while, because now that the O6 are back on the island, it won't constantly flip between time zones anymore (though it might still flip). This will allow them and the audience to witness what happens and will present them with that trustly old time paradox dilemma: if they reveal what young Ben and the hostiles are up to and save the Dharma Initiative, they'll have changed the timeline and created a future where their own lives on the island would not have happened the way it did, which in turn would ensure they wouldn't change the timeline, which in turn would mean the old situation would have happened, etc. If, on the other hand, they just witness the purge happening, well. Welcome to the club, fellows. You should talk to Donna and the Doctor.

Glad to see Frank Lapidus again. I rather liked him last season.

Lastly: I'm betting we'll see Locke flashbacks - his encounters on the mainland - before we find out whether Locke now shares Christian Shephard's status on the island.